Monument | War dead | WW1

St George in the East war memorial

Erection date: 15/11/1924

Inscription

{On the east-facing side of the plinth:}
To the glorious memory of the brave men from St George-in-the-East who laid down their lives in the Great War, 1914 - 1918.
Give thanks to God O England for thy sons.

{And on the same side, on the platform supporting the plinth:}
And those who died in World War II, 1939 - 1945

{The other three sides carry the list of 96 names, see Subjects commemorated for this list.}

The "Give thanks" phrase does not appear to be a quotation, as we first thought, or if it is, it's eluded us.

St George's website has a good page on this memorial and how it came to be. And there we found a list of the names on the memorial which is very useful since the stone is rather weather-worn. However some of the names on the website do not match the names that can be easily read on the monument, for reasons we can't explain. So, for our list we have taken the monument as our primary source and only used the website where the monument is illegible.

The St George's website also informs that the list of names was drawn from the wider district and included names from other denominations, indeed, a representative of what we would now call the Jewish community made an address at the unveiling ceremony. The memorial does not carry any overtly Christian imagery, even though the sword was designed as a "cross-hilted crusader's sword" - reminding us of George W. Bush's "crusade on terror" gaffe.